Best Laid Plans
by SabreDae
Summary: Written for NonnaSo, a 5x19 "The Lives of Others" insert because there are plans that sometimes go awry and then there are perfect ones.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: My 60****th**** story on this site! It goes out to NonnaSo, who asked me to write an insert for The Lives of Others showing Kate and the gang planning Castle's birthday party. I've said it already, but thanks for trusting me with your story. **

**To the readers: Luckily I've been working on this story for months and months and it's all complete (though it shouldn't have taken so long to write) so I can update it all pretty quickly. Fingers crossed it fits in okay with the canon of the episode. It of course goes without saying that I do not own Castle or its characters.**

* * *

"Kate?" he called out from his office. He'd heard the front door open, but as yet couldn't tell whether it was his girlfriend returning from work or perhaps his mother trying to creep in late instead. He waited a few moments, smiling gently when he finally saw Kate in the limited view his improvised bookshelf-wall offered. She appeared to have removed her stiletto-heeled boots at the door and was walking through to him in just her socks – plain ones, of course – her footsteps almost silent.

"Sorry I'm so late," she said amidst a yawn, pausing at his side to peer at his laptop screen. "The boys thought they were onto a hit with a lead we chased all evening but it was a dead end." She yawned again, covering her mouth with one of her hands as her eyes slipped closed.

She'd left that morning sometime around five when a body dropped; it was gone midnight now. She looked exhausted. Working out how much caffeine she had to have consumed in order to still be standing made his head ache.

Automatically one of his arms came around her hips, thumb stroking over the bony protrusion he could still feel through her jeans until she finally drew her eyes from the flickering curser on his screen and instead seated herself sideways in his lap, resting her head against his shoulder and humming as he pressed his lips to the top of her head.

"Kate, you're tired. You should go to bed," he murmured, his voice vibrating against the shell of her ear.

She nodded, easing herself back off his lap.

"You comin'?"

He shook his head. He had a few things to get sorted. "Join you in a bit," was all he told her though, smiling as she squeezed his shoulder before wandering into the bedroom. He watched for a moment, waiting until he saw the light in the bathroom flicker as it came to life.

Sitting up straight, Castle glanced furtively in through the open bedroom door, taking note of the now closed bathroom door, before opening the internet and getting started. He was vaguely aware of Kate moving around the bedroom, putting her dirty clothes into the laundry hamper in the corner and grabbing a book to read for a while probably, while he searched, reading through all the information on a few different websites.

Belleayre Mountain, Catamount, Hunter Mountain, Pineridge, Plattekill Moutain, Windham Mountain Resort… How did New York have so many skiing locations?

It took him half an hour, but he thought he'd finally found the perfect one. _Breezy Hill Inn_. A homely-looking, Victorian Bed and Breakfast in the heart of the Catskill Moutains, with great access to the ski routes at Belleayre.

Reading the website for the place, he had to guess that the building was larger than first appeared. He couldn't imagine where the owners could fit a gym and steam room amongst the guest rooms and reading den and recreation room. The more he read, the more he was convinced that Kate would love it though. He could picture them there, sitting and relaxing in the reading den after a day on the slopes. It was clear in his mind, the way they'd occupy a couch in comfort. He could take his laptop and write with it resting on his knees while Kate leaned up against his side with her nose in a book. If they got fed up of skiing, they could go to the Baseball Hall of Fame at Cooperstown. He'd probably be bored; but Kate wouldn't and that was what mattered.

First he just had to convince her to take some vacation time though.

* * *

He broached the topic as he slid into bed beside her, sitting propped against the headboard with her until she reached the end of her current chapter – Patterson, he noted with a tad of jealousy.

Since meeting her, the famous woman behind Nikki Heat, the league of mystery writers he often played poker with had taken to sending her free promotional copies of their books simply because they knew it would annoy him. His possessiveness had been obvious at the poker table, even if Connelly, Patterson and Reichs couldn't see the grip he had on her thigh under the table.

"You've still got vacation days for this year, right?"

"Hmm?" It took a moment but eventually Kate placed her bookmark between the pages and closed the book before looking up at him.

"You've got vacation days, haven't you?"

She nodded, a slight crease forming between her eyebrows as she tried to figure out why he wanted to know. "Is this about your birthday? Because, I've already booked those ten days off so we can go to Bora Bora-"

"-I know," he replied, cutting her off before she could start to rant at him. "It's not about that. I just think you could do with a few days off, a chance to get out of the city for a bit and do something completely unrelated to murder." She opened her mouth, but he barrelled on through in the hopes of stopping her imminent complaint. "I've already found the perfect place!"

"So it's not the Hamptons?"

"Nope, gonna take you some place special, Kate. Someplace I've not been with anyone else."

"You sound pretty confident you can get me to agree to this," she pointed out, smirking with one eyebrow quirked at him.

"Oh, I can. I've got plenty of ways to convince you, should the need arise," he said, voice dipping as he allowed a finger to tease the slither of skin showing between her shorts and shirt. He waited until Kate shifted, inching into more of a recline, before he withdrew his hand and continued, "But I'm pretty sure the place alone is gonna sell it to you."

Huffing at him, Kate crossed her arms. Ultimately, her desire to know what exactly he was planning won out, however.

"Let's just say you're gonna have to get some snow boots and a fleece and a ski jacket."

* * *

By the end of the week, they were on their way out of the city in a rented Ford SUV that was a lot more practical for the two and a half hour journey and snow they had ahead of them.

They had barely made it twenty minutes on the interstate though when Castle declared, "I feel a coffee pit stop coming on."

Rolling her eyes, Kate replied, "We've only been driving for thirty five minutes."

He shrugged. "Don't tell me you're not wishing we could have made up a thermos before we left."

Unfortunately he had her there. Getting up at half six, the two of them had been more concerned about making sure none of their bags got left behind than sitting down to enjoy a full breakfast and taking the time to prepare food and drinks for the journey.

"Fine," she relented. "We can make a stop, but we're getting it to go."

Truth be told, Kate enjoyed the chance to stretch her legs. The slight chill in the air woke her up from the drowsy state the early morning drive had begun to put her in, but it was the shot of caffeine that allowed her to smile at Castle's ridiculous levels of enthusiasm again.

"Come on, Beckett, it's out first vacation together," he said. "It's exciting!"

"I thought our first holiday was in the Hamptons."

"That was our first weekend away together," he corrected as he stirred more sugar into his fudge-flavoured mocha before pocketing the empty sachets. "And it was at my house, so that definitely doesn't count as a vacation."

"Whatever, we're only going skiing, Castle."

"Just skiing? I'll have you know, Kate, that there is no such thing as _just _skiing. You've yet to see my slalom run or my tricks."

"You? Tricks?" she questioned, quirking one of her eyebrows.

"Yep. What can I say? I'm almost a pro skier," he boasted, blinking his eyes at her innocently over his polystyrene cup as he leaned back against the car and sipped.

"So how come I've never heard about this?"

"I could fill a book with things you don't know about me, Detective. Contrary to popular belief, _Cosmo Magazine _or whatever other women's magazines that run those 'everything you need to know about Richard Castle' pieces, do make things up."

"Are you implying I read those because I'd like to ask whether you've ever even seen one of those trashy magazines in my possession," Kate replied pointedly.

"Absolutely not. I know you get all your info from my website, a much more reliable source."

Shaking her head, Kate nudged him with her shoulder, almost sloshing her latte down her hand. It was worth it for the _almost _chastened look on his face though.

"You do know clearing out your search history and cookies doesn't completely wipe your computer, right?"

"Yes, Castle, I am a detective," she began, rolling her eyes and then freezing. "Richard Castle if you've been snooping through my laptop, they won't find your body," she threatened, turning on him with a pointed finger and a glare that would make a tiger cower.

"I would never- Ahh!" Castle exclaimed as her finger and thumb twisted his ear harshly. "It was one time, I swear, and I didn't find anything!" He soothed his reddening ear while pouting at her. "I just wanted to find out if you had an account on my fansite."

"For the last time, Castle, I don't have an account on your fansite-"

"-Lies, Beckett. How else did you know that Nikki would be naked on the cover of _Heat Wave_ before I showed you it?"

"I told you," Beckett mutters, "I checked out your website out of professional curiosity. That doesn't mean I made an account."

"You sound so convincing," he deadpanned. "Come on, Kate, it's been five years. Just put me out of my misery and tell me."

"Why? So you can stalk this non-existent account?"

"Maybe I just have professional curiosity too," he replied, making her smirk at him.

Shaking her head, she stepped away from the car and downed the cooling dregs of her latte. "We should get back on the road. You comin', Castle? Or am I going to have to vacation without you?"

* * *

The two of them sat and stared for a moment, breathing and taking it all in. The Inn was even better in person than it looked in the few pictures Rick had scrolled through online. In the pale spring sky, the dark grey slate tiling the roof looking vibrant in comparison and bringing the maroon painted rims flaring to life.

"Awesome, right?"

Kate just grinned at him for a moment before closing her fingers around the door handle and pushing it open.

The childlike enthusiasm on her face as she stepped out and breathed in the fresh, gas-emission free air warmed his heart, made it flutter against his ribcage so much that for a moment he forgot that he should be climbing out of the car and getting the bags before Kate could decide that she didn't need him to be a knight in shining armour and do everything for her and instead he stared. So often Kate was wrapped in professionalism, and it was only really with him that she joked about.

It was the click of Kate shutting the door that had him unclipping his seat belt and tumbling out his own side of the car. They reached the trunk at the same time but, having none of it, Rick was quick to grab Kate by the waist and lift her a couple of inches off the ground and spin before putting her feet back on the ground behind him.

"I got it," he told her.

She had to admit though that seeing Castle walking up the stairs with the muscles in his arms straining into cords as he carried their two holdalls, with skis slung diagonally through the handles. It didn't help that he was puffing his chest out too, pulling the front of his plaid shirt tight across his torso and give her all sorts of inappropriate thoughts about lumberjacks.

"Okay, here we are," he said despite the fact that she'd been stood outside their room, leaning against the wall and watching his careful progress while she waited. He set down the bags and dug the key out of his pocket with show, grinning toothily at her all the while. He held the door wide for her, then stooped to grab the bags again and follow her in.

She took it in slowly, keeping a steady pace as she moved into the room even though it wasn't all that big, nothing like the suite he'd got them in LA. Even the master bedroom at his house in the Hamptons was bigger, but the room they'd been allocated was still well-decorated, with a strong cabin-like warmth. The lower half of each wall was panelled in a dark, cherry-wood and there was some kind of cinnamon scent in the air that made him think of nights in front of the fireplace with a cup of hot cocoa.

Setting their bags down, he stopped only to shut their door before crossing the room and taking a seat on the edge of the double bed before lying down and patting the space beside him invitingly. He was looking at the moulding on the ceiling when she joined him.

"I did good right?" Castle asked, twisting his head to look at her sprawled out on her back beside him.

Her smile bloomed in an instant as she her hand landed on his thigh, rubbing up and down the denim. "Yeah, you did good, Castle."

* * *

He woke early in the morning, pushing the mop of messy curls out of Kate's face so he could pepper every inch of her smooth skin in kisses that had her unconsciously curling her lips into a smile before her eyes blinked open.

"Let's go," he exclaimed, flinging back the downy comforter and letting in cool air. When Kate curled up more, twisting onto her sides he added, "The snow awaits, Beckett."

"It'll still be there in an hour's time," Kate countered. She couldn't quite help finding his enthusiasm endearing however as he ignored her point and swung his legs out of the bed, stretching for a moment before crossing to the closet and grabbing the few hangers bearing his base layers and thick ski pants. Sighing, she pushed herself up and out of the bed, accepting her own clothes from him with as little eye rolling as she could manage. "Just going to shower."

He sat on the bed in his base layers, wishing Kate would hurry up. He'd already heard the inn's other occupants get up and head down for breakfast, all of them passing by their room with excited chatter about getting out on the slopes. He sighed and checked his watch again. He could have sworn Kate was taking ages on purpose; her usual showers didn't take half an hour.

He lost track of how long he waited, fooling around on his newest app, _Bike Rivals_, until he heard her calling him from the corridor.

"Breakfast?"

* * *

They ate out on the little veranda, enjoying the freshly baked bread and perfectly fluffy pancakes the inn owners had prepared in the kitchen. In the chilly air, the bacon cooled quickly, but he had no problem with wolfing it down, eagerness to get out on the snow taking over him.

He tried not to let his impatience show as he waited for Kate to attach her skis, but the slow slide back and forth of his own skis across the surface of the snow must have drawn her attention.

"Why don't you go on and grab the lift, make a start? I'll go up with you when you get back down," she suggested without looking up as she tried to force the heel of her snow boot to clip into the lock on her ski.

"You sure?"

"Yeah, I think I'm gonna tighten up the buckles on my boots anyway."

He nodded before realising she wasn't looking and verbalising his assent. Pushing on his ski poles, he slid along the ground and seated himself in the lift just before the chair got too high. The sun blinded him as he ascended the mountain side, harsh white light glinting off the snow despite the dark goggles attached to his face. But when he cleared the treetops and looked around behind him, it was a vista well worth it though as he glanced around, searching for Kate's small figure on the ground.

He pushed up the bar on the lift in advance, sliding straight out of the seat when the ground met the bottoms of his skis. The crowd of people nervously standing just in front of him were a pain, but he navigated around them, coming to a stop just at the crest of the medium-difficulty route he would be taking down the mountainside to take it all in for a moment.

When a twenty-something snowboarder shot past him though, flying two feet off the ground in some kind of jump down from one of the harder difficulty runs, he couldn't help it.

"Oh, it is on," he chuckled, repositioning his goggles before pushing off on his ski poles.

He picked up speed quickly, slaloming in and out of inept skiers until he was neck and neck with the snowboarding dude, shooting looks over at him as he flicked up the front of his board and sailed over a bump in the snow.

"Show-off."

Unfortunately for Castle, the run didn't have any obstacles he could showcase his own skills on, leaving him feeling disappointed when his opponent glided towards the base of the mountain ahead of him.

Beckett was waiting for him though, watching his progress.

"Looking good," he called, stopping just in front of her with a spray of snow.

"Castle, I look like an Eskimo," she complained, holding her arms out to display her puffy snowsuit in all its glory.

"But a very cute Eskimo, though of course, you know, they like to be called Inuits."

His arm stretched around her waist to pull her into his side where he could press his cold lips to her face, catching her just underneath the folded hem of her grey, wool-knit hat.

"Less kissing, more skiing," she mumbled after a few moments when he failed to pull back and left his lips and nose against her, stealing warmth.

* * *

Castle swung his legs on the lift, holding one of Kate's hands as he pointed out a group of school kids receiving their first skiing lesson with the other one holding all four of their poles.

When Kate saw the blue marker for the intermediate difficulty, she raised an eyebrow.

"You'll be fine on one of the advanced routes," Castle assured her, lifting the bar keeping them safe in due course and getting off ahead of her. He waited till he'd passed her poles back over before setting off, heading straight for a section of the run which looked a lot more steeply sloped.

The run was slick, leaving him feeling like he was soaring through the sky rather than sliding down a mountainside. A quick glance to his left showed Kate making steady progress down a lower incline, looking relaxed. He couldn't resist when he saw the rising snow in front of him. If he got enough air, he _knew_ he could make that backward grab he'd seen in the Winter Olympics once.

"Kate?! You watching?!" he yelled in the approach, sticking his tongue out in concentration.

The next thing he knew he was sprawled on his back.

"Shit! Castle!" Snow showered over him as she came to a stop beside him, having cut a path across numerous other skiers who'd all slowed to watch the scene unfold. "Are you okay?"

He groaned, pushing his goggles up and closing his eyes at the dazzling sunshine flooding his senses.

Kate gasped in horror as blood trickled out the corner of Castle's mouth.

"Castle, you're bleeding."

"Bit my tongue," he mumbled, wincing at how those few words contorted the said muscles. "I'm fine." He sighed and pushed himself up on his arms, and then looked around for his lost skis, spotting them lying a couple of feet away and grunting in annoyance before the sound turned into a breathless gasp of pain as he tried to bend his knee and stand, unleashing a torrent of agony. "Fuck!"

In an instant Kate was on her knees beside him, hands feathering over the knee he gripped between both hands, still half-sitting and half-lying on the snow.

"What is it? What did you do?"

Castle shook his head, biting his lip so hard the flesh turned pale and the pain of that still failed to distract him.

"Castle, talk to me."

"My knee," he gasped. "I've broken my knee."

If it weren't for the ashen quality his skin had taken on, the sheen of sweat beading on his brow and the fact that, despite having Martha as his mother, Rick wasn't an amazing actor; she'd have thought he was pulling her leg.

* * *

He lay in the back of the ambulance with his crooked arm over his eyes, attempting to block out the jolt of pain that ran up the nerves of his leg with every bump in the road. At his side, Kate held onto his free palm, worrying her lip and shooting anxious glances at the accompanying paramedic every few seconds.

They'd put a splint along his leg, but every so often she would catch his grimace. With his pants cut open so the paramedics could survey the damage, the livid bruise flaring up along his swollen flesh made her stomach churn.

As a detective, she could pride herself on often times having an iron stomach. Most crime scenes didn't make her feel physically sick, but it was Castle's knee she was looking at. If the damage was too severe, he could be stuck with a crutch or wheelchair for the rest of his life.

"Kate," Castle groaned.

"What is it, babe? Is the pain too bad?" Kate shot anxious looks at the paramedic, but the man was already checking Castle's pulse and his eyes. The tightened grip of her boyfriend's fingers around her hand had her returning her attention to him, just catching the tail of his murmured sentence.

"-ruined our holiday."

"Castle, babe, it's fine. It was just a weekend away skiing," she replied, smoothing a hand over his cheek in an attempt to reassure him. "We don't even know how bad the damage is yet."

He nodded, but couldn't help the thoughts in his head telling him that he definitely wasn't going to be walking any time soon.

* * *

Laid up in bed with his leg in traction, things couldn't seem to get any worse for Castle. They'd had the doctor in and he'd received the diagnosis: a stable vertical fracture of his patella. The prognosis was worse though – four weeks with his leg in a brace that didn't allow any movement of his knee and wheelchair for getting places. Thankfully he wouldn't need surgery, but it definitely put a stopper in their holiday plans. He was listening to Kate make the calls to cancel the trip to Bora Bora, feeling miserable as she explained his situation to the airline and then the hotel, and the insurance company, and whatever other facilities and amenities they had booked.

* * *

Hanging up after the last call, Kate exhaled loudly, scrubbing a hand through her hair. It had taken twelve phone calls and over an hour, but their holiday was officially cancelled. Drained of energy, Kate span around and took the few steps to reach Castle's bedside again.

"Hey," she whispered as she woke him up with a hand sweeping the hair off his forehead, smiling gently at his adorably confused expression. "Just finished making the calls."

He nodded, swallowing heavily and sighing.

"What's the matter?"

He just shook his head, one of his hands running up and down her wrist.

"Come on, Castle, talk to me. What is it? Do you need more pain meds?"

"No, I just want to go home, Kate," Rick finally answered, looking beatdown and miserable.

Kate scrutinised him for a moment, rubbing away the crease in his forehead and soothing a thumb over the shadows under his eyes before nodding. "Okay, I'll organise it."

* * *

**A/N: Just to let you guys know, this first chapter provides the introduction to the story and was quite long; the rest of the chapters are a fair bit shorter. I hope you don't mind! I'd greatly appreciate it if you could take the time just to give me some thoughts on this. **

**Thanks for reading!**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Thank you everyone who reviewed last chapter! **

* * *

It had been less than a day but he was already bored out of his skull and fed up with the stupid wheelchair the hospital had given him while Kate bargained with airports and pilots to have him flown back to NYC.

Kate had been great, bless her, with the whole thing, badgering the doctors into releasing him and staying up with him on the flight back to distract him from the discomfort radiating out of his knee cap, but when they got back, she'd more or less situated him comfortably in the living room and deposited his laptop with him before heading to bed. He couldn't blame her; it couldn't have been fun listened to his rambling and moaning for the last twenty four hours.

Trouble was he was so pumped full of medication that concentrating on anything for a prolonged period of time was actually a lot more difficult than it should have been.

He'd scrapped whatever writing he'd been doing – he couldn't even remember whether it was Nikki or Storm now – when he'd read back the few paragraphs he'd written and realised he'd used the word sagacity. Even films were failing to flag his attention.

Sighing, Rick pulled out his phone, freezing when the countdown for Bora Bora cropped up in his notifications.

"This sucks more ass than…"

"Than what?" Kate asked, exiting the bedroom in power heels and a blazer.

"Nothing," he muttered, frowning as he noticed that she'd changed out of her jeans too. "You goin' in to work?"

"Yeah, sorry, Gate's just called. Apparently there's an emergency."

He sighed again; his hopes of having his girlfriend find some way to entertain him dashed by her job.

"Cheer up, Castle," Kate said, stopping behind his wheelchair and securing her arms around him. "Alexis said she'd stop by. You'll have fun with her."

He nodded, toying with the fingers of one of her hands mindlessly until she pulled them away and pressed a kiss to his cheek. Her hair brushed his ear as she stood straight.

"I've got to go." She paused, running her hand through his hair. "I'll see you later, Castle, okay? Don't do anything stupid."

"Pshhh."

His chuckle was cut off by Kate's voice calling to him from the door. "I mean it. No racing or attempting to get out of the chair without help."

"What if I need to go to the toilet?" he called back, smart-ass that he was.

"I'm sure you can wait until Alexis gets here, Castle. She said she'd be round within the hour."

"What about my dignity?"

"I'm pretty sure you lost that when you stole a police horse naked," Beckett answered, smirking as they fell back into their teasing ways. The door shut crisply seconds later as she left, leaving him alone in the loft.

"This sucks ass," he groaned again, thumping his head back against one of the chair's handles. Just how long would he have to wait for his daughter to arrive and save his sanity?

* * *

She was listening to the briefing Gates was running, but every so often Kate couldn't help picking up her phone and unlocking it, expecting to see a message from Castle. His silence was worrying enough that she was tempted to duck out of the bullpen when the Captain wasn't looking just to call. It had been obvious ever since they had left the hospital out in the Catskills that he wasn't going to stop lamenting his injury and the end to their few days out of the city any time soon.

* * *

Alexis didn't bother knocking on the front door, but upon walking in on her father drooling in his sleep she almost wished she had.

"Dad?"

He jerked awake, almost toppling sideways out of the wheelchair in the process.

"Alexis!" He grinned, smile faltering somewhat as his daughter stared at his knee in concern. "Trust me; it looks worse than it is. I'll be up and out of this chair in no time," he assured her.

"Kate said it would be four weeks," she countered and well, he had no answer for that really. Instead, he shrugged and wheeled himself back and forth an inch or so, looking for something else to focus on. "So, _Scrabble_?" Alexis suggested, dumping her coat and bag over the arm of the sofa as she passed on the way to the cupboard that housed every game from _Monopoly _and _Parcheesi _to the laser tag gear.

While she set the game up, Rick carefully manoeuvred himself around the couch without bashing his leg into anything and rolled to a stop at the table side. The chair put him at what was an awkward height, but he'd rather stretch up than have bend forward to use the coffee table.

"So, remember Dad, no cheating," Alexis warned, passing him the bag of tiles to pick out his letters. When she'd been younger, naiver, her dad had liked to both invent words and tell her that the ones she created were not in fact in the dictionary.

"Mmhm."

While Alexis took her letters, he surveyed his own, searching for a better word than 'cat'. He was sure there was a word he could make from the tiles he'd picked up but it sat on the tip of his tongue, somehow unreachable.

* * *

"I can't believe I lost," he muttered, earning an eyeroll worthy of his girlfriend from his daughter. "I never lose."

Feeling dejected, Castle rolled himself back towards the TV, grabbing one of the Xbox controllers from the coffee table as he passed. Fortunately for him, he'd obviously left the disc for _HALO 4 _in the console and he soon lost himself in the repetitive running and shooting, dying and re-spawning every so often.

He didn't hear Kate come home just before seven and exchange soft conversation with his daughter in the kitchen.

"Hey, thanks for coming over."

"It's fine," Alexis replied, pushing her textbooks back into her shoulder bag. "Did you get everything sorted at work?"

Kate pulled a face. Her captain hadn't been particularly pleased when she'd begged off the investigation, arguing that the extra vacation days she'd used had gone. In the end, she'd had to bargain with the days she'd originally booked off for Bora Bora, telling Gates she needed the days to help her father out since he'd caught a fishing hook in the sole of one of his feet over the weekend and couldn't get around too easily. She didn't appreciate having to lie to her boss, but she couldn't very well tell the Captain the truth. In the end, Gates had only agreed under the stipulation that Beckett work from home and take care of everyone else's paperwork. She already had a great stack to work through the following day.

"Well, if you have to keep going in, I'll help out round here as much as I can," Alexis offered, pulling her bag over her shoulder.

Kate smiled and murmured thanks, investigating the kitchen for a moment before she asked, "You're sure you can't stay for dinner?"

Alexis twisted her wrist, checking her watch face before dropping her bag back onto the table top. "I guess I could stay another hour or so and catch a cab back."

"You're welcome to stay the night, Alexis. I'm sure your dad would love to see you more," Kate said as she began grabbing pans and ingredients in the kitchen.

"Thanks, but I've got an early class," his daughter answered, rolling her sleeves up to help Kate with whatever she was making.

Kate nodded, passing Alexis an onion to slice before setting a pan to heat on the stove. Pasta would be pretty quick to sort out. "How's he been?" Her gaze flicked back into the living room, settling on Castle for a few moments and his slouched frame.

"Not great," Alexis admitted, pausing with the knife halfway through the onion. "I don't think he likes the painkillers."

"Yeah, he feels like he can't concentrate properly."

Alexis nodded in agreement. "He lost _Scrabble_."

Kate chewed on her lip, glancing back towards Castle again as his video game character seemingly ran in circles through a particular series of cave tunnels. "I wish there was something we could do to cheer him up. He's not even looking forward to his birthday now that we've had to cancel the trip to Bora Bora." She sighed, watching her partner instead of focusing her gaze on the pan of oil she was heating.

"We could throw him a surprise party," Alexis suggested.

* * *

The idea of a surprise party simmered in Beckett's mind through dinner while Rick picked miserably at his roasted vegetable pasta. She was sure they could pull off the surprise element, but she couldn't help thinking that it would have to be something a little bit more special to really distract Castle and pull him out of the grumps.

Kate washed the dishes by herself once Alexis had left while Castle sat and stared out the window, looking like he'd be bashing his skull against the glass if it weren't for his stretched out leg preventing him.

Sighing, she set down the tea towel and crossed the loft to stand behind him, smoothing her hands over his shoulders in an impromptu massage.

"Come on, Castle, let's go to bed," she murmured. The rest of the dishes would be fine to go in the dishwasher and receive a quick rinse in the morning. It wasn't exactly late, but she could feel exhaustion at the end of her tether and had to guess that he probably didn't feel great either since he was so uncharacteristically silent. She would have expected him to be whinging like he had the last time he got a papercut, and moaned about how something so inconsequential could hurt.

He just nodded silently though and allowed her to take his chair by the handles, pulling and pushing, steering him into the bedroom before helping him remove his robe and shift the couple of inches over to the bed. It took her only a few moments to change out of her work clothes and pull on a loose t-shirt and a pair of sleep-shorts, but in that time Castle was well settled under the covers.

Trying to be as mindful of jostling his leg as she could, Kate slid under the duvet slowly before reaching to turn off the small lamp on the bedside cabinet with Castle's hand finding its way onto her waist. After the tiring few days the both of them had experienced, she expected to be unconscious in minutes. Sleep was anything but restful and peaceful though. While Rick was a soft snorer, something that Beckett had become accustomed to over the months they'd been together; he'd never really been the type to toss and turn and thump the pillows in frustration. Usually, he conked out almost the instant his head hit the pillow, especially if they'd been up late busy with certain… _activities_. Unfortunately, as he'd done nothing but sit in the chair all day, he didn't seem to be tired at all, and his restlessness kept her awake for at least an hour.

When Kate woke, it was to freezing legs and feet; the comforter having been kicked or thrown off the bed some time during the night by Castle. He looked to finally be sleeping peacefully though, even though he had been forced into lying on his back – the position he least-favoured. Assuming the covers had been too hot for him, she left them on the floor and instead grabbed a pair of soft, flannel pants to wear instead before heading back to sleep, still toying with ideas of what kind of party to throw Rick. She knew from the many Halloween parties he'd thrown, that costumes and some sort of theme were probably a necessity.

It was when she found him looking out the window again the next morning – not wanting to imagine how he'd managed to transfer himself to the chair without her help – that she got her idea, noticing the to-rent sign in the window of the apartment opposite. She just had to find out if it was possible first.

* * *

**A/N: Let me know what you think?**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Thank you, thank you, thank you! I've read this over a few times, most recently today, but I'm not the best at spotting typos (or equally the sometimes weird mistakes my brain makes) and I've been up since 5/6 so I might have missed something. If I have, someone please let me know?**

* * *

Speaking to Martha and Alexis about the apartment to rent and her idea turned out to be quite difficult. When she was at the Loft, having been apart from her all day, Rick wanted her constant, undivided attention. Even doing the crossword or reading the morning newspaper as she liked to do on her days off had become an impossibility. While she wasn't physically at the precinct, she still had a tonne of paperwork to fill out and take back to the Twelfth. And then, unfortunately for 'her father', or rather Castle, another case came up. Karpowski's team was maxed out with two ongoing investigations, Jacobs and Martinez had one of their own, and Ryan and Espo were getting nowhere with theirs. It didn't matter how much she needed the time off, the precinct needed her more than Castle did.

She'd ordered and had some new DVD boxsets delivered to the loft, but in a day he'd watched all sixteen episodes – a discovery that had been both astounding and disconcerting.

"You watched how many?" she had asked in shock when she came back from the precinct one day and found him staring at the blank TV screen, questioning why he wasn't watching _Life On Mars_.

He had shrugged and muttered, "I miss being at the precinct," quickly putting an end to her amazement and only strengthening her conviction that she had to find some way to make him feel like it was a normal day solving crimes again.

At her wit's end over the whole thing, Kate arranged to meet Martha for a coffee on one of her days off, telling Castle a friend from college was going to be in town for the day and wanted to catch up. She made sure to emphasise how boring she expected it to be in an attempt to ward off any request he might make about joining her and surprisingly it worked, though he still sulked as she kissed him goodbye and squeezed his shoulder.

As she stepped into the small shop on Amsterdam Avenue, she saw Martha had already arrived, ordered herself a coffee and taken a seat at a table, busying herself with window-watching while she waited. Smiling, Kate deposited her coat over the spare chair and went to get her own latte before finally she sat down opposite her partner's mother.

"To what do I owe the pleasure, Katherine?"

"Sorry to drag you out all this way. I just needed to talk to you somewhere Rick won't overhear us," she explained, continuing after receiving an confused - yet encouraging - nod from his mother. "I've had an idea I could use your help with. You know the apartment building opposite the loft? I noticed a 'to rent' sign in one of the windows last week and had an idea for how we could keep Rick's spirits up and celebrate his birthday now that Bora Bora is off."

Martha nodded again, though she didn't quite understand where Kate was going with this idea. What use was a vacant apartment?

"Martha, how feasible do you think it is to stage a murder?"

* * *

Between the two of them, Martha and Kate began working out the kinks in the plan, calling the owner of the vacant apartment in order to request its use. It involved some odd questions, but eventually the landlord agreed to rent the space to them for a week or two on the stipulation that they pay a deposit that would be returned to them at the end of the brief 'tenancy' if the apartment was still in the same condition.

And then they hit a snag.

"So what's the murder story?"

"I was thinking crime of passion," Kate answered, considering keeping the fake murder simple as the best plan.

"That's much too boring," Martha protested. "Richard will see through it in five minutes. How about a shoot the messenger scenario? Or a good old-fashioned shoot-out?"

Kate shook her head.

"A gun fight would attract too much attention – someone would call the police. Castle needs to call Ryan or Esposito, not 911." Perhaps asking for help from Castle's dramatic mother had been a mistake.

"Ah," Martha replied, acknowledging the problems with her suggestions. "Well my students would certainly have no problem with acting out a little love scene. I'll check with the troupe for their availability before making my selections, but I have the perfect trio in mind for a little adulterous set up."

Silently breathing a sigh of relief, Kate smiled. "That would be great, thanks, Martha. So, guy discovers his girlfriend is cheating on him? Kills her in anger?" Martha nodded. "I'll speak to the boys tomorrow; they're going to have to be on board. And probably Alexis too – I think we're going to have to have someone there supervising him, making sure he doesn't go too far, commit any real crimes or make any citizens arrests."

"Sensible. To properly direct my students, I think it will be best if I were to be out of the picture." Kate opened her mouth to protest, but his mother continued, "I did intend on going away anyway, since Richard was going to be celebrating his birthday in Bora Bora with you. Perhaps I can tell him that I'm still going. Trust me, Katherine, if this wonderful idea of yours is going to pay off, it's for the best."

The two of them stayed, plotting and planning, long after their coffee mugs were empty and then returned to the loft together; a scrap of paper in Kate's pocket with everything they had to do and a rough timeline of when everything had to happen the only evidence of their meeting.

* * *

Alexis stayed only long enough for dinner that night, stopping by the living room once more to kiss her father on the cheek before continuing to the front door Kate held open.

"Hey, Alexis, do you have a second?"

"Yeah, is something up?" his teenage daughter asked, looking worriedly past her shoulder and at her father again.

"No no, everything's fine- or well, as fine as is possible right now. I just wondered if I could count on you for help with something-"

"-I know you're talking about me!" Rick called from within the Loft, sounding moody.

"Kate just wants to know how much college work I have," Alexis replied, noticing the look on Kate's face that made her curious as to what else the Detective could need her help with. She was already coming over during the daytime to cover Kate while she was at work, whenever her grandmother couldn't take care of her dad. "So, what is it you need?"

"Last night I came up with a plan – of sorts – for how to help Rick stop missing working at the precinct with me and still celebrate his birthday. I thought maybe we could stage a murder in the apartment up for rent across the street as a kind of April Fools' thing. Your grandmother's going to provide the actors from her school, and the props too, and we've got the apartment sorted. I wanted to know if you'd be willing to hang around here, maybe plant a few ideas in his head and supervise him to make sure he doesn't actually call the cops?"

Pondering for a moment, Alexis considered her timetable and when she'd be able to drop round. Theoretically, she'd probably be coming to the loft in her free time to watch over her dad anyway. "I've got a few classes, but I should be able to be here for at least three hours every day," she offered, phrasing the words as a question.

"That would be perfect!" Kate enthused; glad to have got Alexis on board.

* * *

"You don't have to worry about me all the time, you know," Castle grumbled as he lay in bed, watching Kate move around the room, undressing and stowing away her father's watch and the chain bearing her mother's ring. When she finally climbed into bed beside him, tugging up the covers around him around smoothing out wrinkles in his soft cotton shirt, he frowned and tutted, mistaking her attentions as yet more wearisome worry. He was fed up of everyone looking at him with a mixture of pity and concern in their eyes.

"I don't worry about you _all _the time, Castle. Only when you do something stupid like get out of the car when I've told you to stay there or when you attempt dangerous skiing stunts." Her voice took on a teasing hint, hoping to pull some sort of humour out of him, but his eyes were flat when he looked at her. "I won't apologise for caring about you, Castle. I love you, remember?" Her palm on his cheek forced him to maintain eye contact with her. "I _love you_."

"Sorry," he muttered, eyes flashing guiltily.

Shaking her head, Kate told him, "Castle, it's okay. I understand how frustrating everything is. Believe me, I was ten times worse when my dad was hovering around me at the cabin, insisting that I stay in bed and he'd do everything for me. I'm just glad you're not testing the boundaries like I did." He smiled a little at the image of her rolling her eyes and scowling every time her father entered the room with a never-failing, gentle smile despite the outbursts of irritation she came out with when he became too overbearing for her to handle. He could easily picture her reaching too far and suffering the crippling pain in her chest too, though it wasn't half as entertaining to think about that.

"_Ten _times worse?"

She grinned and nodded; all teeth before sticking her tongue out at him. "Call my dad, ask him."

"I've been really moody the last few days, haven't I?"

"You think?"

"Sorry," he said again, sighing. She squeezed his shoulder but otherwise didn't acknowledge his apology.

"Come on, Castle, let's get some sleep."

Easing her body down so her back was no longer leaning against the headboard, Kate switched off the light before she turned her body in towards him, her eyes easily finding his form in the darkness once they'd adjusted. She snuggled closer, almost on her front but making sure to keep her legs away from his broken knee. Her head and one of her hands rested atop his broad torso, fingers smoothing and tapping against the material covering his ribs for a few moments.

"Night," she mumbled, already beginning to feel sleepy.

"Night, Kate." His voice grew even quieter as, hand drifting up and down her back, he added softly, "I love you too."

* * *

**A/N: I would love to hear your thoughts! And like I said earlier, if you see a mistake, just a review or a PM to let me know would be great so that I can go back and change it. Also, I know on the show we never saw Kate tell Rick she loved him until Still, which was 1/2 episodes later depending on if you follow the original air order or the changed one, but we can all suspect that she said it before at least once, right?**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: A longer chapter this time, guys! Yayyyy!**

* * *

"Castle, I'm going to work!" Beckett called out, waiting until he rolled his wheelchair out of the bedroom before she disappeared. "Just call if you need anything, okay?"

He nodded, wishing her a good day as she kissed his cheek before turning on her impeccable choice of heels and leaving for the day. After their late night talk, Rick's spirits were much improved, though he seemed to get surly whenever she reminded him he needed to take his painkillers, complaining that he couldn't do anything afterwards. Kate felt happier leaving him alone until Alexis could drop by though; Castle was hopefully aware enough of his moping and grumpy attitude to at least temper it somewhat.

She smiled as her phone beeped in the car and she risked a glance away from concentrating on where she was driving to read his text.

_I miss you already_.

She rolled her eyes but less than five minutes later she had another message from him.

_Do you reckon you could swing back round to the loft and pick me up? I could help with your paperwork._

Scoffing, Beckett forced her attention back onto the road, mentally laughing at the idea of Castle actually helping her fill out her case files for once. She had no doubt that it would only take ten minutes for him to grow bored, especially if his concentration span while on the drugs was as bad as he grumbled every morning. Explaining his presence to Gates alone would be enough of a headache without having to keep him entertained on top of that.

_Pwease?_

Another text came in less than a minute later.

_I mean, pLease_

Were the drugs affecting him that badly or were his mistakes a ploy to make her give in? She couldn't tell. He was still sending her texts that only half made sense when she arrived on her floor of the precinct, almost running right into a flustered-looking uniform not watching where he was going. At the speed he jogged, t-shirt not properly tucked and coming loose at the side around his holster with all of the movement, he had to be a rookie. She still remembered what it was like that first year out of the academy, all the razzing from the older uniforms and the detectives, the pressure to make an arrest and do it right. She could let him off.

"Hey," Ryan and Esposito said in near unison, both of their faces brightening as they caught sight of Kate.

"How's Castle?" Ryan asked, grinning as Kate's expression darkened.

"I swear he's driving me up the wall. Forty texts, he's sent me this morn- no, wait, make that forty one texts," she exclaimed as her phone vibrated in her hand and she found her boyfriend's face lighting up the screen again.

"Guy can't even entertain himself for thirty minutes?" Esposito questioned in humour while Beckett continued to seethe.

"Apparently not." After a cleansing breath as she sat down at her desk, Kate softened however. "Actually, that was something I wanted to talk to you guys about." Both men nod, requesting her to go on. "I came up with an idea for Castle's birthday but I'm gonna need your help with it."

"So long as I don't have to dress up fancy in a suit, I'm in."

Kate had to smother a grin. "Nothing like that, Espo. I've been working with Martha to set up a fake murder investigation for him that ends in a surprise party."

The two men guffawed.

"So you'll help?"

"Oh yeah, chance to see Castle investigating by himself? Making a total idiot of himself? No way we could pass that up." Ryan was positively beaming at the idea. "So, what's the crime? A vengeful spirit on a murder-spree? Ooh, or a golem loose in New York, killing on its creator's orders?"

Beckett and Esposito stared.

"Dude!"

"What?" Ryan asked.

"How do you think we'd even get a golem?" Beckett enquired, still looking at the Irish detective with a mixture of disbelief and disconcertion. "Martha and I agreed on an affair scenario. The lot across from the loft has a vacant apartment you can see right into. She's still got to check whether her actors are available, but we were thinking the boyfriend finds out the girlfriend's cheating on him. Castle maybe sees him pull a knife on her?"

"Oh, yeah, that would be a lot easier," Ryan agreed, turning slightly pink at the ears and smiling sheepishly.

"So where do we fit into all of this?"

"It's nothing big; I just need you guys to take Castle's calls about the murder. Martha came up with the idea of us finding no evidence and making him think he's invented the whole thing, only for me to go round there and confront our so-called murderer and then, we've not really worked out all the ins and outs of it yet – Martha needs to take a look round the place with her actors, scope out how the action can all unfold – but he'll see and call you guys for back-up. And everyone else - Alexis, maybe a few of his poker group if we can make sure they'll keep their mouths shut - will already be in the apartment, ready to surprise him." Beckett shrugged. "Sound okay?"

Lips pursed and eyebrows raised, Ryan nodded, impressed. Esposito, however, looked less convinced.

"What if he calls 911 or does something that we can't predict or expect though?"

Kate had to admit that Esposito had a point. Her boyfriend, despite how well she knew him after five years working together, had a knack for doing the unexpected, or rather, doing something stupid.

"Maybe you should explain the situation to Gates?" Ryan suggested. "If Castle called, she could instruct dispatch to just send us?"

Beckett chewed on her lip. Could she tell the Captain?

* * *

Her knock was lighter, less confident than usual and she hesitated a second longer than usual after Gates called for her to enter, taking a moment to remind herself that if she could hold all the cards in an interrogation, she could do the same while asking her boss for a favour.

"Captain, could I talk to you for a moment?" Kate asked, poking her head around the door before stepping in when Gates motioned to her.

"What can I do for you, Beckett?"

"Well, Sir, I'm sure you've heard about Castle-"

"-Heard about Castle? Believe me, Detective, I'm celebrating." Beckett tried to keep her expression stationary as Gates leaned forward on her elbows with wide eyes and an expression that looked far too pleased considering there had been a moment when Kate hadn't been sure whether Castle would ever walk again.

"Right, well, I've been planning something to keep him occupied." She paused, was that a poor word choice? Were her palms sweating? Unclasping her hands, she crossed her arms instead, quickly adding, "He's been texting me for case updates." Oh God, that sounded worse, didn't it? What was she, an untrained rookie let loose on their first interrogation? "Well, occasionally." Kate swallowed. She had to get herself under control. "Castle's mother and I have been working on staging a fake homicide of sorts-" Beckett broke off as her captain interrupted her once again.

"-That's enough, Detective." Kate held her breath. "I don't want to know any more about this than necessary. I trust you and Detectives Esposito and Ryan will stop him from doing anything illegal?" Kate nodded. "In that case, why are you here, Beckett?"

"Espo and Ryan mentioned the possibility that Castle might call the emergency line instead of them. I don't think it'll be a problem – Castle knows calling them or me directly would be quicker than going through dispatch – but they thought it would be pertinent let you in the loop should a situation arise in which Castle requests actual police resources."

"If police resources are used at any point in this plan of yours, Beckett, there will be consequences."

"Noted."

"Anything else?"

Kate hesitated for the smallest of seconds, wondering if perhaps she ought to say something about the surprise birthday party attached to the whole idea before coming to the conclusion that, firstly, it would likely bring more questions about why she was going to these lengths for her supposedly completely platonic partner, and, secondly, Castle probably wouldn't want her there.

"No, Sir. Just that there'll probably be a role for you to play." Her Captain's sharp, enquiring gaze had her explaining, "I've paid for a storage facility and we're intending for Castle to break in under the belief that the murderer he's been spying on is storing the body there. The whole point is that there's going to be no evidence, that we're not going to believe him, but for this to be realistic enough to fool him, I think I'm gonna have to have the owner of the storage space call it in. I'll drive us in, you can dress us down-"

"-I can berate Mr Castle? Say no more, Beckett."

She paused. "Is...that okay then, Sir?"

The Captain smiled, the oddest and biggest-looking grin Kate had seen since she'd returned back to work after her shooting. "Oh yes, Detective. If that's all, I'll get back to these reports then."

The glasses going back onto Captain Gates' nose were Kate's cue to leave. The second she'd closed the door behind her, she was exhaling a sigh of relief at how close she must have come to blowing everything in there. Worringly, getting her Captain's agreement had felt too easy. Breaking her moment of peace though was the urgent buzzing of her phone. Castle.

Kate tried to keep her tone light as she answered, "Hey, are your ears burning?"

She could hear his smirk as he replied, _"Been talking 'bout me, Beckett?"_

"Moaning about you more like," Kate teased, walking away from Gates' office lest she overhear. "So what're you doing?"

"_Been writing."_

She frowned. "I thought you couldn't concentrate enough for that."

"_Oh, I can't,"_ he assured her. "_I just used the words manic calm alongside each other_."

She chuckled as she sat back down at her desk, glad that despite the fact he couldn't do the one thing he normally could, he still seemed to be in reasonable spirits.

"So, what's up?"

"_Nothing much," _Castle replied, his not-so-subtle tone letting her know exactly what he was up to. _"How's your paperwork day going?"_

"Fine, I guess, though Ryan and Espo have dumped theirs on me as payback for leaving them with the last of mine to go skiing and I've barely even started it."

She could see his shit eating grin in her head, could hear his smug smirk in his voice when he said, "_Oh? Well, if it's that bad, Beckett, I guess I could catch a cab and drop by to offer my speed reading services and neat block capitals…"_

"If you wrote unintended juxtaposition in your novel, how are you gonna fill out my case files?"

"_It's paperwork, not writing for a Pulitzer or Nobel prize."_

She clucked her tongue. "You insinuating my job's easier than yours, Castle?"

"_Only one way to find out," _he replied, voice dipping with suggestion.

Laughing, Kate said, "Castle, you don't even have a badge number. I can't let you fill out paperwork-"

"-_I could leave the badge number blank for you to fill in_."

"Which would leave me still having to spend more time reading over what you'd written." She heard him sigh heavily, her tone – despite its gentle quality – making it clear that she wasn't going to accommodate him this time. "Look, Castle, how about I leave a little early today?"

"_How are you gonna manage tha_t?"

"I was already going to bring some of the paperwork back home, I'll just bring more and come keep you company in front of the TV, yeah?" Her suggestion was met with silence. "I'll get pizza and we can make a night of it. Castle?"

"_With eggs? And chorizo?_"

Kate wrinkled her nose, but agreed to pick up a pizza for him with those toppings. One thing was certain – she would be getting her usual order spinach, mushroom and capers. There was no way she could share her boyfriend's disgusting pizza, no matter how nice he insisted it was.

"Okay? So, I'll you later?"

"_Yeah_, _see you later. I love you."_

Even though she didn't repeat the words, just told him, "You too," before hanging up, Beckett still found herself glancing around the bullpen but found only Ryan and Esposito had been paying attention to her conversation anyway.

"What'd Castle want?" Espo asked, repeatedly throwing a baseball up into the air as he perched on the side of Ryan's desk, the two of them dossing about now that the remainder of their paperwork resided up on her own desk.

"To help with my paperwork apparently. Who knew it'd only take an injury to get him to want to do his fair share?" she joked, looking at the boys with an eyebrow arched in mockery.

Espo nodded, thinking for a moment before grinned. "You should have taken him up on the offer. Good luck finishing that by yourself," he said, pointing at the large pile of folders sitting on the side of her desk. "Ryan, you wanna go grab a bite?"

* * *

While the boys went out for lunch, Kate worked in silence, diligently working her way through file after file, her hand writing almost on autopilot while her mind tried to plot out exactly how she and Martha would pull off their fake murder. By the time the boys had returned, leaving a paper-wrapped sub on her desk as they passed by, heading to their own chairs, she had already decided that they would need to get Castle some binoculars and make sure they dropped hints about using them.

"Yo, Beckett, about that surprise party?"

"Yeah?"

"Lanie's invited right?" Esposito asked, looking down at his cell phone.

"Of course," she answered, feeling her own phone pulse with vibrations in her pocket. Upon pulling it out, she found she had already received a text from Lanie.

_Girl, what's this I hear about a surprise birthday party for Castle? Where's my invite?!_

She held the phone aloft and called to Espo, "Thanks for getting Lanie mad at me," with sarcasm colouring her tone. Taking her phone with her, Beckett abandoned the shrinking pile of paperwork for a moment in favour of brewing a coffee. While she let it cool on the side, she dialled Lanie, waiting five rings while her best friend likely removed her gloves and the grime of whatever autopsy she was working on before the call was answered.

She couldn't even get a word in before Lanie was giving her sass. "_Girl, how come Javi knew about the party before I did? You know I could help organise this. Telling the boys first is like choosing someone else to be your Maid of Honour_-"

"-Lanie, I told the boys first because they need to be prepared for when Castle calls them, thinking I'm in the clutches of some murderer-"

"-_Okay, now I'm really confused. Girl, you better explain yourself!"_

Explaining the plan to Lanie, with her new ideas about Alexis maybe subtly encouraging Castle to take a look around the 'crime scene' and finding fake blood, filled her with excitement for what was to come. It had to be how Martha felt whenever she was on the stage, playing a role, and for a moment getting to enjoy the audience's emotions.

When she was done, Lanie was cackling. "_Oh, Writer-Boy's definitely got a shock coming. I better be allowed to be waiting in that room for when he charges in, expecting to find you with a knife at your throat._"

"You'll be there," Kate promised, collecting her coffee and taking a sip. Catching a glance at her watch, she sighed. She should really get back to work – no-one else was going to do her paperwork for her. "Lanie, I gotta go, but I'll keep you posted."

She slipped the phone back into her jeans and, with her coffee, returned to her desk, abandoning the drink to take a bite of the lunch the boys had brought her. As she chewed, she frowned, resisting the urge to gag.

"You guys got pickles in this, didn't you?" Espo and Ryan's laughs confirmed what she already knew from the bitter taste left in her mouth. "Dicks," she muttered, opening up the paper around the sandwich and pulling the two halves of the baguette apart so she could dig through it to remove the offending vegetables.

The boys were still chuckling quietly about their little prank hours later when she clicked her pen and set it down, beginning to gather together the remaining files she had to fill out and slot them into her messenger bag, having to stuff the last few messily into the shrinking, cramped space until her bag was far heavier than usual and bulging out at the sides.

"Right, I'm done for the day," Kate announced once she had her belongings together and had organised her desk into a reasonably tidy state. "I'll see you guys tomorrow."

"Oh, Beckett?"

"Yeah, Ryan?"

"You'll tell us exactly what you need us to do for this whole fake homicide thing right?"

She nodded. "I'll call you."

* * *

**A/N: Thank you for the continued support and kind words, guys. **


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Apologies for not getting this chapter out to you guys yesterday, I had a hectic work day. Thank you for all of the reviews and favourites though!**

* * *

Kate never thought she'd be spending her lunch break discussing the quantities of corn syrup, food dye and water needed to make fake blood with Lanie, but that was what she was doing at midday on Thursday.

"If you want it to look realistic, you should tell Martha to add in some cocoa before she lets her guy flick it all up the walls," Lanie advised, briefly tearing her gaze away from her autopsy – an elderly man who she was pretty certain had only died from natural causes – to make sure Kate was paying attention. Although the detective had been in the morgue before and had seen her fair share of dead bodies, Lanie knew that watching her making the surgical incisions and peeling back layers of skin and muscle to get at a cadaver's vital organs could be too much for even the strongest of stomachs. At Kate's frown, she explained, "It gives it that dark, congealing and drying kind of colour and texture. Makes it thicker."

"Why do you even know that?"

"My cousin was even more into Halloween and costume parties than Castle is." Lanie rolled her eyes as memories of all the times she'd allowed Trisha to cover her in makeup to create horrifyingly realistic injuries and monsters flooded her mind. Going to Castle's relaxed parties dressed as a Zombie nurse with a speck or two of fake blood here and there was much more fun. "So how's it all coming together?"

Kate shrugged. "Pretty well." A week had gone by and in that time, the plan had solidified. "I picked up some binoculars for Alexis to give him on the way into work this morning. Michael, Brent and Emily have all agreed to help us out. Michael and Emily are already moving into the apartment."

"They're actually moving in?"

Nodding, Kate replied, "Something about needing to 'truly experience the space and living together' before they could act being in a relationship. I think perhaps Martha might have had something to do with it – method acting seems to be a common lesson of hers, according to Castle at least." There was pause and then Kate said thoughtfully, "It's been kind of fun organising this, you know. I can't wait until next week when Alexis gives him the binoculars. I don't know if I'll be able to keep a straight face over it all."

"Please," Lanie countered, "You act in interrogations all the time."

"It's not acting," Kate began to protest only to be silenced by a hard look from her best friend.

"Maybe they don't call it acting at the academy, Kate, but that's what it is."

Aside from a quiet harrumph, Kate kept her other comments to herself.

"I do have one question though," Lanie said after a moment's pause, still concentrating on her surgical incisions.

"Yeah?"

"How are you going to set up the party without Castle seeing?"

"Eh, I might need some help with that one," Kate admitted. Now that she thought about it, she would be unable to go over to the vacant apartment and set up banners because she would be too busy getting ready to '_go out for Castle's birthday dinner_.' If Martha was going to be staying close by, perhaps she could pop in with some champagne and decorations if Castle was distracted for a while. It would be coordinating the arrivals of the guests that would be the hard part – even if really it was only a small group.

Suddenly Lanie was pulling off her gloves and staring at Kate with wide eyes, twining her fingers together and pleading, "Kate, let me take care of it for you!"

"-Lanie, I don-"

"-You know how good I am with parties, Kate!"

"Well, yeah. Just this is gonna be low-key and-"

"-I can do low-key," Lanie promised, eyes turning light and beseeching as she looked at her best friend with raised eyebrows.

Sighing, Kate rolled her eyes. "Okay-" She was choked off as Lanie clapped her hands together in excited glee and dashed across the two feet between them to pull Kate into a hug. "Remember. Low-key."

"I know, I know. Alexis, Martha, Javi, Ryan, a few other people – not Gates, I know. I can handle it," Lanie assured her.

* * *

The texts and emails didn't stop coming as Lanie inundated Beckett with ideas for colour themes and decorations, but surprisingly she appeared to have taken Kate's advice to heart. By the end of her shift, Lanie had already ordered a simple banner and settled on monochrome as a theme, sending Kate a text that merely read, "_Wear black,_" and no matter how many questioning messages the detective sent in response, she couldn't quite get a full explanation.

Despite the mystery, she was glad to have one less thing on her busy plate. And as she stopped by Martha's acting studio on her way back to the loft, meeting Michael, Brent and Emily for the first time, Kate decided maybe it wasn't such a bad thing to share the load a little.

"Michael, Emily, if you're living at the apartment, would it be okay for me to give you the food and drink for the surprise party?" she asked once Martha had stopped stressing the importance of having every part of their performance scripted. "You can just keep it in the fridge, and then we don't have to worry about sneaking it in."

"S'all good," Michael replied, laidback and full of smiles as he looked quickly at his pretend girlfriend and nodded.

"We can pick up some things on our way there, I mean, on our way home, this evening." The petite strawberry blonde's lips twitched over her slip of the tongue, a light blush tinting her cheeks.

"Relax, Castle's not going to hear you speak, Emily-" Kate began, only for Martha to interrupt her.

"Nonsense. A performance is only perfect when all of its components are brought together. Richard is a writer, folks. He's the master of reading people. If you want to fool him, you've got to bring your A game to the table."

Leaving the dramatic instruction to the expert, Kate sent a reassuring smile Emily's way and figured she'd better be on her way before Castle began to wonder what was keeping her so long. He'd probably driven Alexis up the wall if she hadn't already left.

* * *

"Hey, Castle," Kate said as she entered the loft and spotted him immediately messing around a set of Chinese linking rings. "Good day?"

He grunted something, neither a yes nor a no, but still looked up and smiled briefly as she passed and pressed a kiss to his cheek on her way through to the bedroom.

"Lanie says hi," she called, stripping off her blazer and beginning to work on the buttons of her shirt.

"You have a fresh case?" he asked despairingly, rolling himself to the bedroom doorway.

Kate smiled and shook her head, tossing her balled up shirt into the open laundry basket. Unlike himself, Castle didn't even watch the ball of cotton's graceful arc down into the wicker bin but instead kept his gaze trained on her.

"Nope. Another slow paperwork day. I popped in to see her on my lunchbreak."

He nodded, but his disappointed expression was unmoved.

"Something the matter, Castle?"

He fiddled with the wheels on either side of his body, rocking his chair backwards and forwards before he muttered, "You could have come by to see me on your lunchbreak."

"Tomorrow," she promised, walking to him and situating herself in his lap with a leg on either side of his, her thighs squeezed up against the arm rests. Her arms folded around his neck as her lips brushed his. "I'll swing by tomorrow as long as I don't have a murder."

"'Kay."

"Now, what are our dinner plans?"

He shrugged.

Kate sighed. She really couldn't be bothered with cooking, even if it was just whipping up a simple carbonara dish so she looked at him hopefully and suggested, "Takeout? We haven't had Chinese from that place on Forsyth Street in ages."

* * *

**A/N: Thanks for reading!**


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: Thanks again guys for all the support and kind words**

* * *

Unfortunately when the next morning came for Beckett it was at quarter past four with a call from dispatch. Castle was groggy, eyes like slits as he peered blearily at her, when she slipped from between the bedsheets and began dressing in the dark bedroom.

"Might have to take a rain check on that lunch date, Castle, I've got a case." He groaned in disappointment, wrinkles deepening on his forehead until she smoothed a hand through his hair and kissed him goodbye, her lip gloss leaving smudges across his forehead and his mouth. "I'll see you later, okay? Go back to sleep and I'll call you when you're up."

Tiptoeing out, Kate didn't pause in the kitchen to make a quick to-go coffee, but left as silently as she could, shooting a rueful smile at the night doorman on her way out into the dim morning streets.

Her car was chilly after spending the night in the garage, and even though she cranked up the air con, the streets were so quiet that when she arrived at the crime scene, her fingers still felt cool. As she stepped out of the car, she noticed Espo stumbling out of a cab just a few metres further down the road.

"Ryan didn't pick you up this morning?" she asked, calling out the question and startling her partner.

"Huh? Oh, uh, no, I had to dash back to my apartment, so I told Ryan I'd catch a cab and meet him here."

Beckett arched an eyebrow at Espo's unashamed smirk as he made it obvious that he'd hooked up with someone the previous night. She hadn't been aware that he and Lanie had agreed to see other people though. She couldn't help having a sneaking suspicion that that wasn't the case. Usually her best friend told her everything, but she could remember all too easily how Lanie and Javi had attempted to hide their relationship for months two years ago.

"Why'd you not just get Ryan to pick you up from your lady friend's place and then take you back to yours?"

Esposito shrugged and brushed her off, muttering something about being right over the other side of the city. Biting her lip to refrain from laughing, Kate shook her head. Javi couldn't have confirmed a nightly "meeting" with Lanie any easier. Espo strode forwards, leaving her to follow him into the apartment building and into the ground floor unit to join the medical examiner in question and their other partner with the body.

"What have we got?"

"Anna Boozer," Ryan said, throwing a purse over the body into Kate's hands. As she flipped it open, Kate inspected the picture on the driver's licence, comparing it with the face on the body.

"Lanie?"

"Two stab wounds." The ME stopped writing her notes and used the pen to point to the victim's abdomen and shoulder. "The knife severed the brachial artery so she'd have bled out pretty quickly once that happened. I'll hazard a guess that that was the second puncture after the first attack to the stomach."

"The knife was taken out but left on the scene," Ryan added. "It's still covered in blood. CSU are checking it for prints right now."

Kate nodded, mulling over the information as she strode around the tiny apartment, noticing the blood splatters both around the body – even on the wall above her – and on the kitchen surfaces. "The knife was left here?"

"Yeah, taken from the kitchen too," Ryan answered, pointing towards the knife block on top of the counter. When Beckett looked, it was easy to see the space where the biggest knife had been taken. On closer inspection of those left in the set, she couldn't help noticing how sharp the edges were.

"B&amp;E?" Espo suggested, glancing towards the door where the crime scene techs were dusting for prints.

Ryan shook his head though. "No sign of a forced entry."

"She married?" Again Ryan answered negatively and then Espo said, "Alright. I call boyfriend then."

Ignoring the bickering beginning between the boys, Beckett sank back down beside Lanie and the body.

"Anything on time of death?"

"The blood hasn't dried so definitely within the last six hours," Lanie replied. Beckett nodded, inspecting the sticky and wet looking pools of blood coating their victim's clothing as well as the carpet all around her for herself.

She had to interrupt Ryan and Esposito, calling out, "If you're done, real police work needs doing." Chastened, the boys returned their attention to the case at hand and not their assumptions about it. "Who found the body?"

"Guy down the hall – Mick Jarvis – heard shouting and a commotion," Ryan said, quoting from notes a uniform handed him, "came to investigate and found the door unlocked."

"So, Anna and our guy were arguing, things got heated, he stabbed her and then fled moments before the neighbour arrived and discovered her," Beckett summarised.

* * *

The phone rang a few times before the nineteen year old answered brightly, "_Kate! Hey! What's up?_"

"Nothing," she assured Alexis. "I was just checking in, wasn't sure Castle'd be up yet."

"_Oh, no, he's up. You want to talk to him?_"

"Is he there?" Kate asked, chewing on the end of a pen for a moment.

"_He's in his office, but I can take him the phone-_"

Interrupting, Kate said, "That's okay, Alexis. He's probably trying to get some writing done or something. How do you think he is?"

There was a pause before Alexis responded. "_He's…okay, I guess. I gave him the binoculars but he didn't seem very interested…_"

"Oh, I've got a plan for that," Kate replied, voice turning sly as she spun her chair and watched Ryan and Esposito tacking up crime scene photos onto the murder board. "Don't worry about it, Alexis."

Unconvinced, Alexis glanced back at the binoculars sitting abandoned, resting on top of the box they came in, on the coffee table.

"I told Rick last night I'd stop by to have lunch with him, but I'm not sure I'm gonna be able to make it. If I make an order for that deli over on Bond Street, will you guys be in?"

"_Trust me,_" Alexis muttered, peering into the study at her father slouching over his desk with his chin barely propped up by his hand, "_we're not going anywhere._" She had no idea how long her dad had been awake, but judging by the way his eyes were drooping, it was probably ever since Kate had left for work.

* * *

She could have made the order online and had a second delivery for the bullpen but at the last second, as her cursor hovered over the 'place order' button, she changed her mind and dialled for the delicatessen on her cell.

"_Mile End Deli_, _how can I help?_"

"Hi, can I place an order for delivery?"

"_You sure can, Ma'am_!"

* * *

The persistent knock at the door roused Castle out of the unexpected nap he'd fallen into at his desk while browsing through the electronics on _Amazon_.

"Dad?" Alexis called from…upstairs? "Can you get that?"

Sighing, he pushed the wheelchair back, almost colliding with the desk chair he no longer needed, and only just made it to the door in time before the delivery guy got back into the elevator. The man spun at the sound of the door opening and pointed a questioning hand at him.

"Richard Castle?"

"Yeah…"

"Got your order right here, sir," the guy – Jack, according to his name badge – said, approaching and passing Castle a heavy paper bag. "It's all paid for," he added, noticing Castle's frown. "Have a nice day!"

Castle was still sitting there just outside his front door, confused about who had ordered him lunch from his favourite deli, the delivery guy himself probably already down at the ground floor and exiting the elevator, when Alexis popped her head out and asked what he was doing.

"Nothing," he told her, trying to sound bright as he held up the bag and added, "Your lunch is here."

"Oh, that's not mine." At his puzzled look, she explained, "Kate's too busy with the case to come back for lunch, so she organised this as a surprise."

Rick peered inside the bag and sure enough, not only was his favourite sub sitting at the top, but so too was what looked like a feast for at least six people. When he began removing the contents and setting them on the table, he saw that everything was labelled. There had to have been a mix up. He was holding a Caesar salad in his hand for Kate and a meat and mustard sandwich for Esposito.

Smiling, he looked at Alexis. "Feel like taking your old man out on a little trip?"

* * *

Kate was on the phone when Alexis pushed him out of the elevator and onto the homicide floor. Esposito and Ryan saw him straight away though, the both of them throwing down pens and pushing their chairs with their feet to meet him halfway.

"Dude, what took you so long? Been waiting for our lunch for half an hour now."

Esposito nabbed the bag from his hands, rifling through it for a moment to pull out to wrapped and labelled baguettes, throwing one to Ryan and then handing the bag back to Castle.

"Beckett did this on purpose?"

He jumped when Kate's hands slid down his shoulders and settled against his chest. Her mouth was beside his ear, "Mmhm. I couldn't go to you for lunch, so I brought you and lunch here." He twisted, infinitesimally so as to avoid a twinge in his immobile leg, and was about to press his grin onto her own smile when she shook her head. "Gates is in her office. Why don't we go take this into the breakroom?" She took the bag from his lap and led the way into the break room, leaving the boys behind with their sandwiches to get on with keeping the phones manned.

"Okay, I'll see you tomorrow, Dad."

"You're not staying, Alexis?" Kate asked, spinning on her heel to see Alexis already outside the open door.

The redhead checked her watch and pulled an awkward expression.

"I've _really _got to get to class."

Kate nodded. "Okay, well, here, take your lunch with you," she said, locating Alexis' wrapped sandwich and carefully tossing it to her.

"Thanks! Bye, guys!"

"So tell me about the case," Castle requested before Kate had even sat down, leaning his elbow on the arm of his wheelchair and tilting his chin into his palm the way he might when looking at her across her desk.

"Nothing much to tell. Boyfriend and girlfriend arguing, got out of hand. We've got the knife, the prints, witness statements. Only thing we don't have is the boyfriend since he legged it obviously. We've got a BOLO and an APB out though so it's only a matter of time."

Castle pouted for a moment, then asked, "Are you sure he wasn't under mind control after a chance encounter with a sorcerer bearing a grudge against the victim?"

Kate arched an eyebrow. "You can't be serious, Castle."

* * *

Kate had to help manhandle Castle into the back of his town car before going back to work. She didn't miss his mutters and sighs, fed up of being unable to do things by himself after just a week and a half. It probably didn't help matters that his mind was so affected by the strong painkillers keeping his knee from being too much of a bother, that his theories and suggestions about their murderer and where they could find him got even more unbelievable, making less and less sense.

"When are you going to be home?" he asked, leaning out the wound down window like an excitable dog might. The only difference was that there was no pleasure or happiness making Castle grin. She'd just had to say no to his suggestion that he come back to the precinct and help out with each case she had again.

"Probably soon. There's no point hanging around the precinct if we can't catch Simons. I'll see you back at the loft, okay?" Kate asked, ducking to catch his lips with a quick kiss before he retreated into the car and wound the window back up.

* * *

**A/N: Hearing your opinions would be great.**

**Sidenote – it felt so odd, giving them an easy and open and close case…**


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: I've tried to keep this from just being a verbatim copy of the episode. Hopefully I've succeeded…**

* * *

Castle was already awake when she woke to her alarm. After his early morning the previous day, he'd wasted no time in heading to bed early after dinner, likely still sulking after her refusal to let him back into the precinct - in part because she knew he would be of no help and because of the fact that she'd spent a full week planning his surprise party and it was just about to get underway. Exactly why he had been up so early, she had no idea.

It was unusual for her to get woken by her alarm before her phone rang with a fresh homicide, but the rarity didn't stop it from happening that morning. She jotted the details down while sitting on the bed, still in her pyjamas with her hair likely a ratty mess after a night of tossing and turning. She waited until she had been in the shower before she called Ryan and Esposito though.

Finally dressed, with hair blow-dried to perfection, she wandered out into the living room and discovered exactly what it was that had brought him out of bed before six thirty. While she poured herself a cup of coffee and flicked through the newspaper at the breakfast bar, he poured over the manual of the latest gadget he'd had delivered: a remote control helicopter.

"Thanks for the coffee," she murmured after the initial sip, only getting the tiniest of reactions. His hand rose from the booklet and appeared beside his forward-facing head, waving slightly for a moment before he had to make use of his fingers with turning the page. "What you got there?"

That got his attention. He craned his neck, looking at her with excitement as he said, "What haven't I got, Beckett?! It's a Syma RC copter! Second edition, brand-spanking new. It even has two frequencies so I can fly two at the same time!"

"Small problem there, Castle, you've only got the one helicopter."

"I can order another," he replied, unperturbed by her scepticism. "You working today?"

"Hmm." Now she was as distracted as him, though her narrowing focus was directed at the headlines rather than a set of instructions for a toy. She didn't hear him ask whether she should be leaving, only coming back to herself when she finished the interview with Bracken that had been included.

It didn't take a genius to work out that his groaning was as he tried to reach an itch, the helicopter set down somewhere and forgotten about for the moment.

Picking up her mostly-full coffee cup and the paper, Kate handed the news headlines to Castle, a subtle hint for him to find a better means of distracting himself, before situating herself on the arm of one of the chairs and scratching the top of his foot for him.

"Almost there, Castle. Just another two weeks."

"It's already been two weeks," he moaned. "Two weeks is an eternity."

"Yeah, well maybe next time we go skiing you're not gonna be such a showoff." It wasn't the first time she'd scolded him for his antics, refused to pity him; it probably wouldn't be the last time either.

"I wasn't showing off!" Kate's doubtful expression had him backpedalling and correcting himself. "Okay, I was showing off a little bit, but I swear to you I can do a tail grab with my eyes closed. And without breaking my kneecap." He added the last part as an afterthought, but really he still didn't know how he'd even managed to cockup his trick quite so badly. He could tell himself that his age was beginning to catch up with him, but that would involve admitting to himself that being in his early forties was the beginning of being _old_.

"Mmhmm."

She couldn't resist teasing him, would probably have said something else had his mother not floated down the staircase at that moment and announced her leaving to a very petulant Castle.

As his mother stopped by the kitchen counter to make a once over her bag, throwing a conspiratorial wink unseen by Rick at Kate, she returned to his chair and folded her arms around his shoulders, leaning down to press her cheek against his.

"Oh, c'mon, Castle. Stop feeling sorry for yourself. I'll get us a reservation and I'll take you somewhere nice for your birthday."

"As nice as Bora Bora?" he groused, pulling a sigh from her. She'd thought he'd been getting better and forgetting about their cancelled holiday, but it appeared he'd fallen back into a mood swing he didn't want to be pulled out of.

She hadn't checked her watch, but the boys were right on time as Martha opened the door to go. Castle was nowhere near pleased though.

"I'm missing another case? No! C'mon, take me with you!"

She made a face that clearly told him they'd already discussed why that wasn't going to be happening. While she gathered her things, she could hear the boys chatting with him and grinned as she heard Ryan's comment about_ Rear Window_. Although Martha had wanted to keep things scripted, she was glad she'd argued against it. Ryan was already doing great planting the seed to look at the building across the way.

* * *

"So, how'd we do?" Espo asked as he nosed his red Dodge out from the curb.

"Yeah, how long do you reckon until Castle caves and starts looking out the window with the binoculars?"

"If he hadn't bought that ridiculous helicopter I'd say twenty minutes tops, but who knows how long it'll take him to get bored now."

"Psssh," Espo snorts, briefly flicking his gaze away from the road and up to the review mirror to look at his partner in the back seat. "Trust me, Beckett, those things lose their novelty after five minutes. Even my ten year old nephew can't play with those things longer than a half hour."

"That may be the case for any normal forty three year old but this is Castle. It's probably going to take an infinitely better offer of distraction or some kind of disaster. Maybe I should have told him he _could _phone consult." She chewed on the end of her thumb, musing over whether she could still call him, looking up when she realised there had been no response from the front seats.

Espo and Ryan had both twisted round, both of them giving her alarmed looks.

"Did you not hear his comment about _Charlie's Angels_?"

Rolling her eyes, Kate slapped at Espo's arm.

"There's a reason I don't normally ride with you guys, you know? Just concentrate on getting us to the crime scene in one piece, would you?"

* * *

Her silent phone felt like a deadweight in her pocket because she'd expected him to call by now. But then again, she'd said she'd call him, hadn't she? Still, she'd thought that he'd have grown bored of the helicopter and picked up the binoculars to check out the imaginary woman about to take off her towel. It had been hours after all.

She'd stopped expecting him to call so much that when he actually did, she paused to check the caller ID and had to take a moment to remind herself that casual nonchalance was of the essence.

"Hey, Castle."

"Where are you?"

His tone gave her pause. He sounded distracted. Was he already using the binoculars? "I'm… at work."

"You said you were bringing home dinner."

"Yes, on my way home," she said, trying to tamp down a smile as she felt the boys looking at her and listening in on her half of the conversation. It was quite plain that Castle had at least grown bored of the radio controlled helicopter.

"So when are you leaving?"

She checked her watch, but rather than specify a specific time simply told him, "Soon."

"When soon?"

"Like in…half an hour?"

"Fine," he sighed, hanging up.

Playing Castle was beginning to feel easy. She gave it a few minutes then sent a text because Castle had to be looking out the window through the binoculars. And if he was looking then it was go time for Michael.

"You think Castle's falling for it?"

She was almost ninety nine per cent certain that Castle would have already watched Michael and Emily at least once, knew for a fact after a text from Martha that he'd at least witnessed Emily and Brent's faux love affair. A slight tilt of the head was the only response she gave though because there was still that niggling one per cent. Richard Castle always had had the ability to surprise her but she liked to think that after five years of partnership and over half a year of a relationship that she could predict his actions with more accuracy.

Sure enough not even ten minutes had passed before her phone rang again, Castle's picture lighting up the screen. She made sure to put on a tone of exasperation when she answered, only to be cut off but his panicked, "No, no, no, no! Beckett – Beckett, listen! I think I just saw a murder!"

Hopping off her desk, she grabbed her keys and instructed him, "Castle, slow down, tell me what happened."

"I looked out the window and I saw him!"

"Saw him what?" Kate asked, nodding at Espo and Ryan to get ready too.

"Take the knife into the bedroom! Beckett, you guys have to get over there. If you hurry, maybe you can save her!"

"Castle, we're on our way. Which apartment was it?"

"I- I don't know." He sounded frustrated, breathing heavily as he presumably pushed his chair back to the window and looked out once more, trying to count how many windows up and along the apartment was to guess at the number. "Fifth floor definitely."

"Okay, Castle, just relax, we'll figure it out. The boys and I are in the elevator right now, they can go check it out and I'll come home, okay?"

"Kate, hurry!"

He hung up and before she had even pocketed her phone the boys were asking, "So are we on?"

"We're on," she said, unable to refrain from smirking. "You know what to do?"

"Oh yeah," Espo replied.

It was Ryan though who detailed the small plan they'd worked out over the course of their few days planning. "We turn up, sirens going, rush the building – make it look convincing, then let Castle watch while we talk to the guy, look round the apartment. Then we go back to the Loft and tell Castle that there was nothing there."

Beckett nodded, stepping out of the open elevator doors first and calling to them, "I'll see you there," before ducking into her own car.

* * *

**A/N: Please let me know what you thought about the level of episode content in this chapter so I can edit around the next one if needs be!**


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: Thank you for the reviews and follows, guys! **

* * *

Castle was still watching the apartment across the way when she rushed through the door and dropped her things on the couch as she passed.

"Espo and Ryan were right behind me," she muttered, looking out the window beside him even though she knew exactly what she would see. "There they are."

Castle watched as the boys exited their car, leaving the lights flashing as they legged it into the building, disappearing from sight once they were in the lobby and then the lift, only to reappear at one of the at the end of the corridor. He saw them knock on the door, Ryan's fists heavy handed and shaking the door in its frame as he said something – presumably yelling something along the lines of, 'NYPD, open up!'

His heart raced as the boyfriend pulled open the door and admitted his two friends. A quick glance right at Kate showed him that she was just as nervous, wringing her hands together until he grabbed one of them.

Not for the first time in the last two weeks, Castle really wished he hadn't broken his knee so that he could be over there and able to listen in as Ryan motioned past the murderer's shoulder and began heading towards the bedroom. His breath stuttered for a moment but when Ryan reappeared, his face showed no sign of having just found a dead body. In fact he looked unflappable as spun to face the window, shrugging at him before shaking Mr-Blonde-Girlfriend-Killer's hand.

Rick turned to Beckett to voice his outrage and confusion at them leaving.

"Why aren't they arresting him?"

Kate pursed her lips to appear as clueless as him.

"Castle, you know they can't do anything if there was no evidence," she replied, backing away as he continued to look out the window. It was a good job too. His tone and his total belief in her little scheme made her want to burst out laughing.

"But there is evidence!" Castle argued. "I watched him walk in there with a knife. And trust me, only he came back out – sans knife too, I might add!"

"Well, I'm sure Javi and Kevin are gonna come over and explain," Kate placated.

Castle continued to sulk in front of the glass while she busied herself with making a cup of latte. There was no way that Castle would want to get an early night's sleep. She was well aware that he was going to spend all evening insisting that they'd made a mistake – she'd afforded for that eventuality in the plan – and that he was probably going to spend the night maintaining a more strict vigil over Michael and the apartment than the Night's Watch did guarding the Wall.

When the boys knocked on the door, she was the one who stood to let them in, sharing a private moment of jubilance until Castle span in his chair and demanded to know what they were playing at.

"Bro, there's nothing there," Espo said before Castle could question him.

"Look, I know what I saw. He took a knife and followed her into the bedroom," Castle said, his voice filled with intensity as he wheeled himself towards the boys.

"I looked in the bedroom," Ryan replied. "Everything was fine. No blood, no body. I swear."

Castle was unsatisfied. "Did you look under the bed? In the closet?"

"Castle, the guy was relaxed and fully cooperative. He let us poke around without a warrant."

"So he probably hid the body," Rick muttered, drawing Beckett's attention again. "If he was completely calm he could be a psychopath." After all, she couldn't let things get _too _out of hand.

"What did he say about the girl?"

Espo answered, making the phrase they'd rehearsed sound natural with his posture. "He admitted they had a fight, they broke up, and she left."

"Not possible. I would have seen her."

"So…you were watching the whole time?"

"I-" Castle paused. "Well, not the entire time," he conceded, turning to point towards the phone on the still positioned haphazardly off its base. "I had to-"

Esposito cut him off. "So…she could have left and you didn't see?"

Kate took a sip of coffee to stop herself from laughing at her boyfriend's floundering. Enlisting the boys' help had to be the best decision she'd made yet. No way would she had been able to stay one hundred percent serious in the face of Castle's stuttered responses. Ryan and Esposito were maybe playing it cooler than she could anyway, both looking confused by Castle's conviction, their voices expressing as much doubt as they ever did in response to one of his ridiculous theories.

"It's possible, but-"

"Because he called her," Espo said, interrupting again. "Handed me the phone. I spoke to her. She confirmed his story. She was in the car on the way to her mom's house in Philadelphia."

She could see Castle getting annoyed, Esposito beginning to have too much fun. Setting her mug down, Beckett stepped in. "All right, thanks guys."

Espo and Ryan shared a pleased look before turning for the door and only giving her a wave. She was too busy consoling an irritated Castle to say goodbye anyway.

"I'm not crazy."

She kept her touch soothing, stroking the back of his neck before sweeping her hand around and down his shoulder as she replied, "No. But you do have a vivid imagination." She sat facing him, perching on the arm of the sofa much like she had that very morning. "And you've been stuck inside for two weeks. What were you doing looking out the window anyway?"

"I was-" She didn't let him finish, speaking first to plant a seed of self-doubt in his head.

"Bored? So you saw what you wanted to see?" She waited for him to respond, but he stayed silent. "When did you take your last pain killer?"

"I was not hallucinating."

"C'mon, Castle. You're here with a broken leg, binoculars, seeing a Rear Window scenario playing across the way. I mean, what are the odds?"

Her heart twisted a bit at his low, dejected tone as he muttered, "Astronomical."

She'd pushed him far enough. "All right. I'm going to make us some dinner and then get you to bed."

He didn't move an inch, didn't reciprocate or look as she pressed a kiss to the crown of his head, squeezing his shoulders before stepping back into the kitchen. She dumped her empty coffee cup in the sink before pulling down a pan and filling it with water, setting it to boil on a high heat over the stove.

"You feel like macaroni, Castle?"

He grunted something unintelligible at her, sulking and flicking through channels on the TV – the switching too quick for him to actually be paying attention to what programmes were airing.

It took effort to force herself to focus on whipping up dinner rather than comforting him. All that stopped her from returning to the living room was the knowledge that eventually Castle was going to get his great surprise. She had a feeling that while he was brooding a few metres away, his mind was already trying to puzzle out what their neighbour had done with his girlfriend's body.

The macaroni cheese didn't take long and surprisingly by the time she'd served up a sizable portion for Rick – intended as comfort food – his mood already seemed to be lifting. It didn't take a genius to work out that he'd come up with some sort of plot.

After the hassle with the search across the street, by the time Kate had cleared away all the dishes into the washer and put the leftovers in the fridge, it was pretty late.

"Come on, let's go to bed," she said, hovering by Castle's side as she eased the remote out of his grip and turned off the TV.

"Sure," he replied, allowing her to roll him into his bedroom.

After two weeks he had long since got over his mortification over Kate having to help him into bed and found the silver lining in the fact that she didn't have to help him change his clothes since he spent all day in his pyjamas and robe anyway. Washing required them to be a little bit creative – but their showers had been that way for months anyway.

While she made her way through her nightly routine, removing her makeup with some wipes before a thorough exfoliating wash and towel-dry, Castle asked about her case.

"IRS agent was murdered outside her office."

"Mmhm. Anything more to this clearly fascinating tale?"

She scoffed as she pulled her t-shirt over her head.

"Whole thing was caught on CCTV, Castle."

"Oh, so you have the guy then?"

Sighing, Kate threw her discarded bra towards the laundry hamper and stalked towards the bed to retrieve her pyjamas from beneath her pillow. "Unfortunately not," she muttered, sitting down on the edge of the bed to poke her feet through the legs of her pyjama pants. Castle's arm stretched out over the covers, the tips of his fingers just grazing up and down what he could reach of Kate's back. "The guy was wearing some kind of torch on his head – you can hardly see anything on the footage."

"You'll get him," Castle assured her.

* * *

When she went into work, Esposito and Ryan were all too eager to hear how convincing their performance was, and how Castle had fallen for the whole thing hook, line and sinker. Espo's smirk at hearing about Castle's midnight peeping made her smile too until the three of them had to focus on their real murder investigation anyway.

She knew what Martha's schedule was, what Michael was meant to be doing while they knew Castle was going to be watching, but momentarily forgot while her mind was turned towards the interview with Dan Renner. At least until her iPhone began vibrating across the surface of her folder and pad of paper on the interrogation room desk. It couldn't hurt to let him stew a while over Michael washing blood off his hands. She had a job to do after all. While she loved Castle, the investigation of Claire DeWinter's murder had to come first. And that was why when he called one of the precinct phones, she had to deal with him without Esposito and Ryan's back up. Someone had to continue working the case.

* * *

After years of arguing and pretending not to like him, telling Castle he was wrong was all too easy. Keeping him on a rein was a lot more difficult though. And the moody way they left things made her wish that Alexis didn't have classes that afternoon. Unfortunately, she just had to hope, as she told Esposito, that he wouldn't do anything stupid, at least until the following morning when he would have his daughter's supervision.

But then when Alexis was watching him, she had no clue what was going on. He was still mad at her after her insinuation that his sleep-deprived and drug-addled mind was imagining things and her later suggestion that he was making the murder up for her attention. With her working hours and his insistence on maintaining a watch over the neighbour, they'd hardly spoken.

But as Esposito had said, he'd call when he was ready. He'd call when he found the invoice for the storage hire.

* * *

And call he did. Right in the middle of another one of her interviews. She was beginning to think a simple treasure hunt would have been a better way to entertain her boyfriend while he was pretty much trapped in the loft. The look of excitement on his and Alexis' faces when they told her they had evidence though changed her mind.

"Remind me again why I'm doing this," Kate muttered as she drove Castle to the storage facility. Her phone flashed in her pocket – a reply from Lanie she was sure.

The second she had managed to get Castle away from the window, she had typed out a quick message to her best friend to let her know she was okay to start moving people and party paraphernalia into the apartment across the street, though as far as her partner knew, she was catching up on Ryan and Esposito's progress.

Checking the storage room was fun, almost like they were working a real case together again. And the look on Castle's face at Martha's double bluff with the wig stowed in one of the rubbish bags had been priceless.

Getting chewed out by Gates though…not so much – even if the Captain _had _let them both off far lighter than she would have had she not been aware of the plan. Beckett didn't miss the gleam of delight in Gates' eyes as she got to ream out Castle. Perhaps that was why she had been so accepting of the idea in the first place.

"I'll meet you down by the car," Castle muttered, clearly fed up of the ribbing from Esposito and Ryan.

Her stomach wasn't quite a mess of nerves as she left the precinct with Castle under the pretence of getting ready for their dinner date, but there were some definite butterflies flapping around inside her ribcage.

The boys knew to expect Castle's call. Lanie had already sent a text her way saying she and Martha had managed to get the apartment ready. Emily and Brent, along with the other party goers were safely hidden away in the bedroom where the closed blinds meant that Castle had no idea; despite the fact he was still looking through those stupid binoculars at Michael, watching him grab lukewarm soda from one of the cupboards.

Dropping the hint was easy. It only took a slight inflection of her voice, no insistence that he drink something before they leave, and he had taken the bait. Once she was out of the apartment, heading down to the street and crossing it for the building on the other side, she just had to hope that Castle would do the sensible thing and call Espo or Ryan rather than 911.

* * *

**A/N: I'm not too sure about this chapter. Finding a balance between putting in episode scenes and glossing over them to stop the chapter getting too long was a bit difficult. If you guys could give me your thoughts – even if you didn't like it – I would be eternally grateful. **


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: Oopsie, nearly forgot to post this one!**

**Originally this story was going to be ten chapters long, and I intended to have this as the penultimate chapter showing the events of the party while the tenth one would focus on the aftermath. With how the episode ended though, I feel like a tenth chapter probably wouldn't add anything of amazing value or worth, so I decided to leave this chapter as a shorter epilogue of sorts intended to bridge the gap between the party and the next morning with Kate going to make the arrests. I hope that this decision sits well with you guys. **

**Lastly I'd really like to thank you all for your support. This has been the first story I've written in completion before posting, and also my first fic that really focuses in on a specific episode. I wasn't too sure how I felt about it when I posted it, particularly since a lot of this was written months ago and I have a habit of looking back at old work and absolutely hating it, so the fact that at least some of you guys have enjoyed this and taken the time to let me know means so much. **

**I will now shut up and let you read. **

* * *

Her heart was aflutter, arrhythmia still making her breath come out in relieved pants against his cheek. For a moment there she'd really thought he was angry, that he hadn't like his surprise birthday party. Trust Castle to have inherited his mother's dramatics though.

"You really blew my mind," he murmured.

Smothering a laugh, Kate answered, "Yeah well, I figured the trickiest part would be fooling you and keep a straight face."

"Well, you win the Oscar for best pretend murder," Castle exclaimed, unable to keep the love from his voice as he levered himself around her on his crutches to grab two champagne-filled flutes for them. "I cannot believe the whole thing was staged!"

She smiled, only for the emotion to freeze and drop from her face as she was hit with a revelation.

"What?"

She spun to face him, beaming once more as she told him, "I think I just solved my case!"

Cautious, Castle's voice was pitched low as he asked hesitantly, "Does that mean you're going to go run off and arrest someone now?"

"No," Beckett answered, taking one of the champagne glasses and leaning in towards him. "Right now I've got other plans." Her lips met his grin for a short moment before she pulled back and lifted her flute aloft between them, toasting him.

He beamed, the biggest smile she'd seen from him in weeks, and she had to kiss him again, her own lips curling up over her teeth as she nipped at his lower lip. A catcall rose from the boys, a laugh and a cheer that swept through the room, breaking them apart until they were laughing too.

"Come on, birthday boy, you gotta blow out your candles and have some of this cake," Javi said, pausing from shovelling chips into his mouth just so he could get the words out. "Can't have any if you don't hurry up."

Rolling her eyes, Kate dropped Castle's hand and picked up the gas lighter from the kitchen worktop and made her way around the edge of the cake, lighting candles, as Castle hobbled over on his crutches, waiting until she was done and flames crackled at the top of each wax stick before he heaved a great breath and let it loose to the claps and cheers of his friends and family.

Only Kate mumbled, "Don't forget to make a wish."

Castle tugged her into his side, his palm wrapping around her waist to bring her into an embrace where his lips could find her ear.

"No need for that. I already have everything I could wish for."

While she nestled her head into the crook of Castle's neck, Alexis and Martha plucked the smoking candles from the cake and began cutting it. It was no surprise that Esposito grabbed the first free slice, complementing Lanie on picking up what sounded like – though it was hard to be sure – an 'excellent cake' while his mouth was still full of the sponge.

"I still don't understand how you organised all this," he mumbled between mouthfuls of the piece of cake Alexis had handed him. It was truly mindboggling. Kate shrugged, smirking because no matter how much he asked, she wouldn't be giving away her trade secrets. "I imagine my mother wanted something much-" He paused to search for the right word but before he found it Kate spoke.

"Let's just say there were a lot of ideas I had to veto," she said quietly.

"She wanted a car chase, didn't she?"

Kate clucked her tongue and shook her head.

* * *

They left the apartment, heading back across the street with a pleasant alcoholic buzz zipping through their bloodstream. Javi, Ryan and Lanie were yelling goodbyes as they clambered into the red Dodge Charger, probably a lot more sober than Rick and Kate were. The inability to sway and dance together in the soft music courtesy of Rick's crutches and immobilised knee had led to them growing a bit overzealous with how many champagne flutes they tipped back.

Alexis held the front door open for them, keeping her sigh quiet as she helped her father inside and over to the couch. He was still mumbling about how he'd had, "The. Best. Birthday. Ever," with a stupefied grin.

"You weren't easy to keep under control, Dad, but I'm glad we managed to fool you."

He chuckled. "Yeah, you guys got me good. Really thought I was going crazy for a bit."

He heard his mother cackle from the kitchen. "Payback my dear son for all the years you sent me round the twist."

He craned his neck, watched her finish pushing leftover party food into the fridge and when she was done, asked, "So, there was no retreat then, Mother?"

"You know, for a writer, Richard, you're really not all that observant," Martha told him, approaching to stand behind the sofa. "I was in the apartment two floors down the entire time." A quick pat to his cheek and she was on her way, heading up the stairs.

"I'm gonna go to bed too," Alexis said, smiling briefly before leaving just him and Kate downstairs to make their way to his bedroom.

Rousing herself from her own side of the sofa, Kate helped Castle back into the wheelchair he'd quickly abandoned earlier in the evening so he could make that hasty phone call to Ryan and Esposito before charging across the street. In their bedroom, she pulled him back up and began working at his clothes, unbuttoning his blazer and pushing it from his shoulders. His shirt followed suit until he was standing bare chested, using a grip on her shoulders instead of her shoulders to remain upright) while she unzipped his pants and eased them down his legs, working carefully around his brace.

"You're amazing, you know," he murmured, smoothing his hands over her naked shoulders. "I don't know how you even organised this and got everyone in on it, even Gates – wait, Gates? She doesn't know, does she? About us?"

"No, Castle, she doesn't know." Kate smiled softly, passed him a crutch to keep him propped up for a moment while she removed her earrings and bracelet.

"Good," Castle mumbled, yawning, as Kate struggled with getting the pins out of her hair and easing it down her back. "Wouldn't want Gates to kick me out of the precinct."

"Trust me, Castle, you're not going anywhere," Beckett replied as she helped him into the bed. "Now, wasn't there a present you wanted to unwrap?" she asked, reaching behind her back for the zip of her dress.

* * *

**A/N: So, thank you everybody again ****for reading, for adding this story to your alerts and following it, for adding it to your favourites and most of all for reviewing and reassuring me that this wasn't totally awful. It's all much appreciated!**


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